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iPhone users in the U.S. average more time on their smartphones than Android users, but they spend less time talking on their handsets than their open-source counterparts, according to a new study released Tuesday.
Overall, the average American adult spends nearly an hour a day on their smartphones, but just a quarter of that time is spent talking, according to Experian Marketing Services research. The findings illustrate the increasing shift of consumer tastes to mobile devices for their information and entertainment.
Voice calling was the most popular single smartphone activity among U.S. users, comprising 26 percent of smartphone usage, or about 15 minutes a day. Texting came in a close second with 20 percent of activity, or nearly 12 minutes, followed by social networking and Web surfing with 16 percent and 14 percent, respectively.
American’s spent almost the same time e-mailing as they did playing games, constituting 9 percent and 8 percent of average smartphone usage. Use of the device’s camera and GPS functionality made up some of the least-used features on smartphones, according to the research.
The findings indicated very different usage patterns depending on the mobile platform. Users of Apple’s iPhone spent an average of 1 hour 15 minutes on their devices, while Android users logged an average of 49 minutes on theirs. However, Android users spent 28 percent of that time talking compared with the 22 percent iPhone users averaged — the same amount of time they spent texting.
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Texting, social networking, and Web browsing were neck-and-neck for the second most popular activity among Android users, with an average of 16 percent each — the same percentage for iPhone users’ average social networking time. Web browsing on the iPhone encompassed 12 percent of average daily use, according to Experian.
“Smartphone users may constantly debate which operating system is supreme, but we see clear differences between the ways consumers use their phone depending on the operating system that runs it,” John Fetto, senior marketing manager for Experian’s consumer insights group, said in a statement.
